After 3 International flights, 4 Airports, 3 Countries, 23 hours of approx travelling with all complex calculations of time travel and some 1000 miles we reached our home for 3 months, dropped by a cabbie pledging his allegiance and association for Mithun Chakrabarthy. This driver was definitely a pauper in comparison to the high profile bus driver [could have easily passed off as a model] from Marseille Airport to station. Fell in love on the first look with the roads [no holes], traffic [organized] , non polluting stylized cars of the various brands which one only dreamt of on Indian roads. Our first sight in the morning [late afternoon] after trying hard to feel of something called being “jet-lag” was of the crossing next to our house with a splendid view from our window, that’s when we named it Times Square.
As we stepped out onto the streets [very clean] and mainly pavements [as rules are followed here and hence we adhere], some aspects caught our attention. The citizens of this beautiful country have an excellent sense of fashion and style and which is truly reflected in their dressing sense. World titles are not merely thrown without any meaning what so ever. They are very fashion conscious which is independent of the time, age or even gender. Yes it was not just the youngsters and potential models that were high on style quotient but also senior citizens [a huge number of the population] with great zeal. This was highly inspiring, exhibiting the fact that they still live their lives each day no matter whether they are past their prime or not. And yes the thing that justifies this the most is the figure which carries those wonderful dresses, this might be due to their being so health conscious and also to the amount they walk on a given normal day.
As for the beauty it is a shame…seriously they don’t realize how beautiful and pretty they are. Every face leaves you breathless and obviously staring which goes without saying. My first thought was that the city was the stage and its roads the ramp. Each one a model in their own respect. Most of them look straight outta the movies, as if you just played them on your VLC player last night. Every face is smiling and seems ready to help, this is purely because of the fact that people here do what they want to and they have a great deal of time to practice and indulge in their interests and hobbies.
A major or I should say the Brigadier problem here is that of language for students [etudiants] like us who even after 3 months of basic French language course can hardly understand the language and more importantly their accent. Very few can speak English and hence we hardly use that and are always in the attempt to do the same. Hindi too is not very frequently used due to the previous failed attempt. So basically to conclude, we are without a knowledge of language here and literally quite lost…. Though the sight and first exchange of words in Hindi with some other Indians at the campus was like being given Bhaji with Pav [and an extra pav]. Campus here is great , though initially getting to the classes becomes a race against time.
Though even here at Marseille, we have duly displayed our brilliance for not following rules and other such lines to adhere to. The very first travel by bus was made without purchasing a ticket, Indian way???....well call it whatever you feel like it was a natural course of action with straight faces “all the way”
We also paid a visit to the City Centre of the city on the Vieux Port. This trip took place only due to the complete accidental meeting with two Pakistani girls in the metro. It was like true friendship across the border in a different land…..now what do you call that???....is there a term???? Anyways Jajoo entered depression when they decided to address him as Bhaiya and did not accept money for Coke. They played the perfect guides in a city in which they too had arrived only some weeks back…. [embarrassing]. The Vieux Port was simply stunning…the only problem being we didn’t know what to keep our eyes on….if you know what I mean. It was like Paris Fashion Week goin on [with no Paparazzi] at one of these crossings…I shall never forget those few minutes and the ‘heavenly crossing’. Few streets down the line we experienced a completely different set of emotions. There were these set of youngsters who were quite determined to get something of value from our respective bags and thus started a classic Hollywood chase with Jajoo in the lead with all pun intended. We escaped though and luckily for them we didn’t steal anything from them instead. Then Hollywood gave way to Bollywood, as our lead actor Jajoo was posing and me the aspirational photographer turned director was taking a nice shot of him with the background of the City Centre. We hear a voice….MOVE MOVE!!!!.....and the next thing we see moving is a Tram comin straight at us with its horn blaring…..and yes we did do a “double Ghulam”…..better than Amir too it seemed. So we did a two first of sorts…filmed a high quality Bollywood shot and also made them blow the goddamn horn!!!....our ears ache because of the silence on the streets…..uff…..We also did an Indian bargaining stint for shades….with the huge Black guy and stopped after getting a Euro off and the contours on his face started changed…
A few of my dreams also came true: played football with 2 street kids in the alley like they show on those foreign sport ads. Also played football on the beach with a team of 8 and mini goals….with people from faraway places…..aha…..wata feelin….
One definite add on to our profiles if not academics on our CV then definitely on our Marriage proposal CV…..lol….has to be our new acquisition of cooking talent…..name it Rice, dal, curry,burger,coffee,tea, Maggi, noodles, maggi again and last but not the least MAGGI!!! Jajoo says his dowry would definitely taken a new leap. We have become experts at supermarkets and shopping without reading the language or understanding what’s Veg n what’s not…..as Veg here includes egg, chicken and other similar kinds of meat….wondering what the other sector comprises of….We have also acquired this innate ability to multiply anything with 7 in like……0.00000232939 secs aprox…..thanks to the Euro conversions….though the supermarkets and retailing here are really superior and now the theory on the Retail Management makes much more sense. Food has been another issue of sorts…the 3 of us represent the entire range of eaters possible…One who would eat anything that moves…..Another would not even look at anything that moves [or is moved even by hand] and am somewhere in between…
So here it is….More later….about our travels and more crazy occurrences…till then….Peace…!!!
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